Optical waveguides, such as optical fibers, are employed in the transport of optical signals. Optical fibers typically comprise a core surrounded by a cladding. If the refractive index of the core exceeds the refractive index of the cladding, an optical signal launched into the core may propagate there through, remaining contained within the length of the core of the fiber.
With the growth of high-speed communications, a need exists for splicing optical fibers together. For the purposes of the present disclosure, a splice refers to the assembly of a fused joint between two or more optical fibers. The need for splicing arises in extending the length of an optical fiber(s), in creating a mode converter(s), and in coupling an optical fiber(s) to devices, such as a repeater.
A variety of techniques are known for splicing optical fibers together. One such a method is fiber fusion. Fiber fusion splicing involves aligning the cores of two optical fiber ends and performing a heating step to fuse the optical fibers together. Presently, apparatus supportive of fiber fusion splicing either blindly aligns the cores by estimating their positions from the known positions of the claddings, or aligns the cores by maximizing the transmission of light as measured through the splice region. These techniques, however, may not produce an ideal result if the optical fibers have non-concentric geometries or complex mode profiles.
Therefore, a need exists for an apparatus to splice two or more optical fibers, wherein at least one of the optical fibers may have a non-concentric geometry or complex mode profile.